A Midterm and Finals
Yesterday I was able to get in a quick speed workout where I alternated 1 min hard and 1 min easy running in between my warm-up and cool-down miles. I'd never tried this before but it seemed to give a good workout as I was able to push a pretty good pace with the easier min breaks. My mile splits were 10:27, 8:51, 9:31, 9:18, 9:27 and 10:20 (partial mile cool-down) with an overall pace of 9:33/mi. I did notice some pain in my left shin. It felt like a shin splint which I haven't had in a long time though it was manageable. Even though my mileage was a little less than normal last week I hammered it pretty hard on Saturday's 2 mile race.
Today we had our midterm for the Garden of the Gods training runs. It included running out of the park down by the trading post and then back in by way of Ridge Road. The hill was incredibly steep and seemed to just keep going and going. It has several places where it looks like it's going to flatten out but then just climbs right back up towards the vertical again. I ran it pretty hard and stayed close to the front of the pack. This was pretty much my overall goal for the day and for the most part it went well. My left shin did bother me a little bit until I was warmed up but once again it was manageable. We ran pretty hard today but it didn't really feel all that fast with all the hills though some of the mile splits tell a different story... 9:16, 8:59, 9:12, 10:55, 10:56, 8:41 and 9:59 (.78 mi) The last mile and a half, or so, are from a buddy and I going a little long after reaching the parking lot with the group. Overall the average pace comes out to 9:42/mi which I'm very happy with especially given the hills we ran today. Hopefully that equates to a passing grade on the midterm!
I actually remembered to bring my camera this morning so I could take a couple pictures but don't think I'm going to have time to post them, not right now anyway.
I now need to turn my attention to a final this afternoon, plus a take home final due tomorrow. Not to mention work, a flat tire and a sick family member! What am I doing blogging?
Comments
Midterms for training runs? What?
Posted by: Dawn | May 9, 2006 2:26 PM
To clarify, the leader of our group training runs is a professor at one of the local universities (the same one I attend) and since we are roughly half way through our training runs (11 out of 20) he called today our midterm. For which we ran an extremely difficult hill that we normally don't run on. Like a test of sorts... one which I passed by showing up and suffering through it.
Posted by: Heath | May 9, 2006 8:03 PM